Charity’s call for help after funding is cut
A LONG-STANDING service for young people with special educational needs is appealing for community support after having its county council funding cut.
Snips, the Hinckleybased Special Needs Integration Project, runs summer and Saturday activity sessions for pupils with learning and physical disabilities at Dorothy Goodman School’s Stoke Road site and at Hinckley Academy on Butt Lane in the town.
Weekly pub sessions are held for young adults and an annual half-term resi- dential trip enables around 30 children to enjoy a supported break in Derbyshire.
Around 100 youngsters from across the county attend the holiday events and about 60 take part in the weekend activities, which allow them to socialise with their own peer group while parents and carers benefit from respite.
Until the end of March this year, the charity received nearly half of its annual funding from Leicestershire County Council.
Now, that funding has been cut to less than 20 per cent and Snips has become reliant on exter- nal donations to continue running.
A pub quiz at The New Plough on Leicester Road raised £420 for the cause and project leaders are calling on other supporters to do what they can to generate more money.
Service manager Phil Hall said: “We have been fortunate to have survived as long as we have done.
“Our work is very valuable but it doesn’t always tick the boxes for receiving funding.”
He said the threshold for families eligible to receive funding for Snips support had risen, meaning that households were now close to crisis point before being able to make use of its services.
Founded in 1986, the voluntary management committee which runs the project is already dipping into reserves to keep its services open to families in need.
Major ongoing costs are hire fees for the use of Dorothy Goodman School and Hinckley Academy facilities, which are currently under negotiation.
Last year, between October and December, income from the county council and parental contributions towards Snips Saturday sessions totalled £16,845.
Trustees estimate that during the same period this year, the figure will be less than £6,000.
Anyone willing to offer financial support is asked to contact the Snips office in Westfield Community Centre, off Rosemary Way, Hinckley, on Hinckley 630834 or to call service manager Phil Hall directly on 07900 382329.
Snips will be one of the causes supported by this year’s Hinckley AlterNativity, which runs from November 11 to December 10, through which people can buy a gift of an hour of respite care provided by Snips for £5.
Find out more online. BOROUGH residents are likely to get a chance in the new year to have their say on high level plans for future development.
A public consultation on the draft Strategic Growth Plan is expected in January. The document, a joint undertaking by all the councils in the county, including Hinckley and Bosworth, sets out how officials believe housing and economic needs right up to 2050 can be met.
According to estimates in the SGP the borough should be permitting the provision of 454 new dwellings per year up to 2036, a figure which falls in line with current estimates.
As well as this some 35 hectares of employment land for office and general industrial operations are thought to be required along with around 19 hectares of land for storage and distribution usages.
An update on the SGP will be given to the cabinet of Leicestershire County Council at the next meeting on November 24 with a report due to go to scrutiny in January next year.